Join Olivia's Battle Against Brain Cancer

For over a month, Olivia had been complaining about headaches, and for over a month, we, her parents, were doing everything they could to get doctors to take them seriously. Finally, on March 12th, a Doctor in the Emergency Room at Mary Bridge's Hospital suggested to admit her overnight so that they could expedite an MRI that they otherwise would not have been able to do until September.

We were horrified when they found a very large tumor, two inches in size, that was pressing against the upper left side of her brain. We were informed of these results within an hour of her MRI, and the next day, we were transferred by ambulance to Seattle Children's Hospital.

There, we met many doctors and underwent many more tests for preparation of surgery, where they warned us of all the kinds of things that could go wrong: the tumor was wrapped up in very important blood vessels, you see, and the chances of strokes and siezures were high. The tumor was right up against the part of the brain that would almost certainly affect speech and the motor skills of the right side of her body.

During this time, all Olivia could say was that her head hurt and that she wanted chicken and fries.

Miraculously, on March 18th, the surgical team was able to extract all that they could see. We are almost a week into post-operation recovery. She is weakened on her right side, and is working hard to regain movement in her right arm and leg after an arterial spasm during the surgery. Yesterday, Olivia said her first words since surgery. "I want food."

Would that we could give her the world from this hospital room. I write this to you having just gotten out of our most recent meeting with the oncology doctors.

It's cancer. A rare one, and aggressive one, but a curable one. One that will have her staying in the hospital for the next six months at minimum. It's called ATRT, and it affects children in the brain and spine. It's relentlessly aggressive, and so too will be the chemotherapy that Olivia needs.

We're scared, but the only way through is likewise aggressively forwards. It is here that we ask you, humbly and with all the sincerity we can muster:

Please help our baby.

Whether that means donating, sending us your thoughts and prayers, or just sharing this link. All of the donations will go towards expenses for Olivia and our family during this time so we can focus entirely on her well-being, rather than having to worry about our mortgage, insurance, food, gas, and all of the unending bills that come with existing.

Anything and everything is appreciated more than we will ever be able to properly say.

Thank you.